It didn't take long.
Kaede quickly found Might Duy.
Just as he expected, after returning from a mission and having dinner with Guy, the two had begun their training. They were currently running laps around Konoha.
Kaede thought for a moment, then took another route and also began running around the village. After a while, he 'naturally' caught up with Duy and Guy.
"You're training too, Guy?"
Kaede greeted him casually.
Guy saw Kaede and gave him a thumbs-up while running. "Of course! Fifty laps after dinner to adjust the state, this is youth!"
Might Duy mirrored his son's movement exactly, raising a thumbs-up in unison, flashing a set of pearly white teeth in agreement.
This bizarre scene made passersby on both sides of the street give them strange looks.
Kaede felt a little helpless.
Do we really have to be this weird…
Even he was getting attention from others just for running with them. He could vaguely hear people whispering, "Someone's actually hanging around with those two?" which made him mentally sigh.
While running, Guy turned to Kaede and asked, "Huff… Huff… By the way, where's Kakashi? Didn't you train together?"
Guy still seemed more interested in Kakashi than Kaede.
"He probably went to train on his own."
Kaede knew Kakashi hadn't taken any missions recently, and if he wasn't home, he was likely out training somewhere. They rarely trained together.
Guy gave him another thumbs-up and grinned, "I see… I didn't expect you to do this kind of basic training too."
"Basics are important."
Kaede smiled, then said thoughtfully, "Lately I've been training in taijutsu, and I feel like there's some kind of limit inside me I can break through. Have you felt that before?"
Guy looked confused. "A limit? You mean when you train until you run out of stamina?"
"No."
Kaede glanced sideways at Might Duy and continued talking to Guy, "Not that kind of limit. It feels more like shackles restricting the strength of the body…"
Hearing Kaede's words, Guy looked even more puzzled. But just as he was about to ask something, Duy spoke up, visibly impressed. He looked at Kaede and said, "As expected of Kakashi's older brother, sensing the existence of the Eight Gates at such a young age. That's not something you achieve just through effort."
"Eight Gates?"
Kaede feigned confusion as he turned to Duy.
Duy, being straightforward by nature, didn't bother hiding anything. He laughed and said, "When you train your body to a certain degree, you'll feel shackles inside. I call these shackles the Eight Gates. Once you break through them, you can unleash extraordinary power."
Guy looked at his father with surprise. He had never heard anything like this before, not even from the academy's teachers.
"Dad, can you use this kind of taijutsu?"
"Of course!"
Duy gave a big thumbs-up. "This is the one and only ultimate technique I've trained for twenty years. I planned to teach it to you once you grow a bit more."
Kaede asked, "Even if you can feel the gates, forcibly opening them would probably cause damage, right?"
"Mm."
Duy nodded seriously. "Honestly, I don't recommend someone your age trying to open the gates yet. But if you can already sense their existence, that means you've reached the threshold of practicing the Eight Gates."
Duy didn't even consider keeping it a secret, or perhaps he'd always wanted to pass down this technique. But being a mere Genin, no one besides his son ever listened to him, even if he wanted to teach them.
So now that Kaede was asking, Duy immediately poured out all the key points of the Eight Gates training method, giving Kaede a moment of sudden clarity.
"Thank you for the guidance, senpai."
Kaede stopped running and gave Duy a respectful bow with a smile of gratitude.
Seeing him like this, Duy laughed heartily. "No need to be so formal! If my experience can help you, that's great! After all, you're Guy's classmate. I didn't expect someone would actually listen to a genin like me talk about taijutsu experience, my youth!"
The first half was fine, but the second half quickly veered into nonsense again, making Kaede sigh inwardly.
Guy looked at his dad with confusion. "Dad, what's the Eight Gates? Can I learn it?"
"Guy!"
Duy snapped out of his emotional moment and patted Guy hard on the shoulder. "You're not ready yet! Let's finish the fifty laps first, then I'll tell you all about the Eight Gates!"
And with that, Duy took off running again, dragging Guy along. The two of them quickly disappeared down the street under the strange looks of everyone nearby.
Kaede had thought about continuing to run with them, but seeing that, he could only shake his head helplessly.
Forget it.
"I finally got the training method for the Eight Gates. Just as I expected, it wasn't hard to obtain. Though… I do feel a little guilty. I'll find a way to repay him someday."
With that thought, Kaede returned home and, based on Duy's explanations and his own understanding of taijutsu, organized the Eight Gates training method.
The key to training the Eight Gates lies in breaking the shackles inside the body.
However, forcibly opening them causes internal damage to the chakra network, so it requires specific preparation and adaptation training—namely, resistance training.
Early-stage practice involves using tools like weights to put the body under constant stress. That way, once the weights are removed, the body becomes more adapted to breaking through the Eight Gates.
Training essentially revolves around repeating this process.
"So I'll need to buy some weights…"
Kaede rummaged through his ninja gear and found some old training weights, but none of them were heavy enough. They were fine for ordinary training, but not for beginning Eight Gates practice.
Still, weights weren't hard to come by. Ninja villages never lacked training tools, and the inheritance left by Sakumo was more than enough to cover the cost.
Soon after—
Kaede spent a decent amount of money and bought a full set of weights.
Unlike the ankle weights Rock Lee wore in the original series, his set included everything: vest, wrist guards, and leg weights, a complete outfit.
"I have no idea what this stuff's made of, but the weight doesn't make sense…"
After studying the weights for a bit, Kaede concluded they were another one of those "unscientific" items like the blood-absorbing Executioner's Blade or the endlessly stretching Kusanagi Sword, likely made with some special crafting methods.
"So heavy…"
Once he put them all on, he could feel a huge increase in body weight. Even walking felt unstable at first, but after a while, he slowly adapted.